The Daily Interview: What's in a Kid's Name? Plenty, if You're Selling It

They're not exactly selling their son's soul, but Jason Black and Frances Shroeder are trying to sell his name -- and for $500,000, no less.

Jason Black Business Editor Internet World

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The Mount Kisco, N.Y., couple posted ads on eBay and Yahoo! last week to auction the right to name their baby son, born a week ago today, for a minimum bid of half a million dollars. No offers came in and both sites removed the postings when they learned they weren't the exclusive listers. The peculiar offer probably would have faded into oblivion were it not for a public relations friend of Black's who pitched the story to a reporter at USA Today.

The initial story quickly led to articles and appearances across the country and even the world, publicity that Black believes has been the equivalent of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign. Black, who works as the business editor at trade publication Internet World, claims the widespread attention his bizarre story has garnered justifies the value of his offer, and that a publicity-seeking company would now get off cheaply for the right to name his son for $500,000.

Black says he's about to enter into negotiations with a privately held consumer products company whose identity he does not yet know, because he's been contacted only by an intermediary. But he's said he won't agree to a deal that would require his baby son -- whom he's privately calling Zane -- to appear in advertisements or publicity stunts, and would probably draw the line at inappropriate names like Playtex, Trojan or Kibbles 'n Bits.

TSC: How did you come up with this idea?

Black: It's going to sound goofy, but it's really true. We had Chinese food for dinner and a fortune cookie my wife got said, "You will have a new home by the end of the year." We started talking about it because that's the dream of every American family. ...